Thursday, December 20, 2012

Stamps and well written tales have something very important in common. They both serve a purpose to tell a story, and for both there will always be passionate people, be it avid readers of books or Collectors of Stamps, who's love and appreciation help conserve these important stories and pass them on from generation to generation.

The Brothers Grimm (German: Brüder Grimm or Die Gebrüder Grimm), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who together collected folklore. They are among the most well-known storytellers of European folk tales, and their work popularized such stories as "Cinderella" (Aschenputtel), "The Frog Prince" (Der Froschkönig), "Hansel and Gretel" (Hänsel und Gretel), "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltskin" (Rumpelstilzchen), and "Snow White" (Schneewittchen).

The popularity of the Grimm's collections of folk tales endured well beyond their lifetimes. The tales are available in more than 100 translations and have been adapted to many popular films around the world, crossing all cultural barriers. They have created a legacy that enriches the lives of many entire nations, reaching them one child at a time.

In honor of the 200th Anniversary of the Brothers Grimm's body of work we wanted to display the lovely German series of Stamps, displayed on the Colnect Stamp catalog, made about their most famous published works. The series, issued throughout the 1960's, depicts different famous moments and plot points from their most well known tales. Almost each year there was a new tale of the Grimm brothers retold through Stamps. The artist beautifully depicted, in a childlike simplified nostalgic style, scenes we all grew up to be so familiar with, as were our parents, their parents before them and so on.

We hope that the best stories of our culture will continue to be remembered and retold through Stamps, as well as other collectibles, with the dedication, enthusiasm and understanding that so many collectors and collectors communities we have come to know and cherish on Colnect have shown again and again.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Lately it seemed that one thing was missing in the Colnect story, and that is Colnect itself telling it. Colnect’s active and beautiful community is always telling the story of what Colnect is, but the time has come to type down some official version of how it came to be. So here it goes.

Amir and Frognector climbing the Triund trail at Dharamsala, India

Beginning - The Idea and IPD

or “How an idea, a family and a community grew together”

From son to father, from father to son, from son to brother. It all started when Amir's younger brother, Uri, started collecting phone cards. Soon enough their father, Avi, trying to help out his son with his new hobby, got hooked too. Avi Wald became an avid and dedicated collector. In 2002, Amir's older brother Ofer decided to create a website for their father to encourage him to use the internet more. That is how “Islands Phonecards Database” (IPD) was created. The word of the site spread around to other collectors and they began frequenting it. Amir, coming back from his world travels near the end of 2007, decided to take it on, from a hobby into a serious undertaking.

Amir Wald has made his first steps as a developer at the age of 8. Amir had solely written from scratch a shelf product for an educational company before he turned 18. Amir was involved in numerous software projects of various fields (educational, financial, military, and more) and was thus well-versed in facing new challenges in unknown environments.

The most important changes Amir began with were allowing collectors to directly contribute phonecard information and translate the site online. This approach created a huge potential to exponentially expand the catalog's and site's scope. It proved very effective as more collectors from around the world joined and helped by contributing more collectible card information. Many collectors that joined IPD are today coordinators on Colnect, contributing their time, knowledge and effort to the Colnect catalogs for the benefit of all collectors. Collectors such as Vadym Sulimenko, Ignacio F Lopes Vico, Jens Bruno Wittekstayed with Amir and helped it all happen. Today the list of contributors is growing as well and we owe each and every one of them a big thank you for contributing to the community.

Amir and Frognector are ready for action in Rishikesh, India

Building Colnect - A Chain Reaction

IPD was gaining popularity fast. It wasn't long before it quadrupled the number of its active collectors and continued doubling on. Its collectible phone cards database increased in size and more collectors managed to easily swap cards with collectors from other countries. The success of IPD has motivated Amir to create Colnect.com. Colnect, (Collect + Connect), was created to open up to embrace all collectors of all collectibles everywhere.

As Colnect grew into a name in the collectors community, it naturally also grew a new face. Frognector, the frog collector, has risen from his humble beginning as Amir’s nephew’s toy, to stardom as Colnect’s beloved green mascot. Frognector was born in 2009, making his first appearance in the StartUp20 competition in Bilbao, Spain, where Colnect won 1st prize. From there on Colnect has gone on to win more competitions such as the TechAviv Peer Awards.

In 2010, Avi Wald, Amir’s father, passed away. He was a devoted collector whose spirit and enthusiasm has inspired and brought about Colnect’s existence. His honest and kind ways will always be remembered, among others, by the many collectors he has gotten to know and exchange with on Colnect. His love and appreciation for knowledge and for the collecting spirit manifests and continues on in the community and workings of Colnect.

Frognector visiting a Buddhist temple in Kunming, China

Colnect TodayToday Colnect is translated into more than 60 languages, visited by over 300,000 unique visitors a month, has over 40,000 registered collectors, has nearly 1 million items cataloged on its 19 online collectible categories, has over 50 million items marked in member's collections and counting. There are always new categories in the works, contributors uploading information and collectors joining from across the globe, from beginners to experienced collecting veterans. The goal is to eventually cover and include the entire collectible world. In 2011 Amir, as always both the driving power behind Colnect and the fast typing hands operating it, has decided to take himself, Colnect and Frognector with him on the road. Amir has been traveling around the world, all the while developing Colnect, meeting up with collectors, visiting collectors fairs, markets , exhibitions and writing about his experiences.

Frognector getting a kiss at a fountain in Pattaya, Thailand

Looking Forward - The Future of ColnectThe enormous progress Colnect has made so far has only inspired its creator to take it further. The long and prosperous way the Colnect community has made together so far goes to show that Colnect succeeds not only for it's idea or the one who executed it, but also because it is useful. It responds to a need, and it has the ability to fill that need because it is made with and for the community it serves. Colnect is on it’s way to making itself smoother, more comfortable and much more available.Among the additions in the works are the Colnect MarketPlace, Colnect Applications and Products and Upgrading Colnect’s features and system. Ideas a little further along the way include Colnect Wiki, Colnect Social communications and more.

Colnect's largest catalog is showing it's strength by not slowing down. Since it's last milestone it continues to grow as more and more dedicated collectors contribute their time, effort and heart to the catalog. All of it wouldn't have been possible without the guidance of the Phonecards category coordinators, Carlos Rodriguez [venezuelanphonecards], Karl Heinz Degener [neizi], Jorge Pablo Villegas [Jorgepablo2005], Eyüp Güçmen [kolleksiyon], and Komdej Chulapprawut [komdej] who continued in the footsteps of our previous coordinators and are assisted by a multitude of contributors and editors the world over.

A notable change that made a true impact on this last great influx in the Phonecards category is the addition of Japanese Phonecards. Cards from Japan are now a large portion of the catalog, numbering at above 80,000 cards. In the past 180 days out of the 44,018 cards added, 31,203 cards were from Japan. The Japanese cards are having an impressive presence and hopefully it will continue to prosper and get through to more collectors of Japanese Phonecards.

One of the most astounding things to see on Colnect is the enthusiasm and loyalty of it's contributing collectors community. We are very happy to see the spirit and willingness of so many contributors joining in and working together to make the best catalog possible for all collectors worldwide. Thank you all, it is truly a joint effort :)

The infrastructure of Colnect itself is right there advancing at the same pace, improving the system and finding the best and most convenient ways to serve the collectors community. The method in which items are added on the catalogs is now being redesigned to an easier, faster, streamlined process. Want to weigh in with your opinion as to how you would like things done? You are welcome to join the discussion.

Colnect wants to make itself as accessible as possible, making it's features available everywhere and for all needed purposes. Colnect has now opened the Colnect API, making the information on Colnect reachable to all who wants to make an app or a program, have an idea for a product or feature based on Colnect.

At times there is talk of Phonecards production slowing down, but as a collectible they have proven themselves to be a rich collectible source to a devoted company of collectors. Phonecards are booming with more than 100,000 Phonecards added to the catalog since our last milestone.

Want to find out how you can contribute to Colnect's fast growing catalogs as well? Come see our Catalog Contribution Guidelines help page. Want to add a new collectible category to Colnect to compete with the Phonecards catalog? Please see our More Collectibles? page.